vignette

STUDENT VIGNETTE Document -

SUNDAY EVENING: Here it is, Sunday evening. I am hoping for a snow day tomorrow so I am using my laptop PC to check [|Weatherbug] to check our current weather conditions to see if we might have a snow day tomorrow. It looks like it might be possible, there is a winter storm warning in effect for Rockingham County so I keep an eye on the weather radar animation to see how the path of the storm progresses. I am proud to see that our Weatherbug uses the weather data from Rye Junior High!

Since we might actually have school tomorrow, I will use my laptop computer to check my agenda ebook and calendar to see what is going on at school tomorrow. Darn, I have homework to do. I have been assigned to read in my social studies book and answer some questions. I had better open up my textbook pdf on my laptop to read the section and when I am done answering the questions in word I will place my assignment in my weblocker for my teacher to pick up first thing tomorrow. Oh good, I see that my friend is online. That kid is the smartest one in social studies. Since it is probably too late to call him, maybe I can instant message him to discuss some of this stuff and help me clarify what it all means… [text online, current events, quia quiz]

… Now I see that I have a French quiz tomorrow. I just found this cool site that will help me study the vocabulary. It is called [|Quizlet]. I will look at the Quizlet Demo to see how it works and if it can help me… Wow! What a great tool! It is really simple to use and useful. I used it to create my own flash cards to help me study my French vocabulary. Then I used it to create some games using the French vocabulary, and playing them really helped me to learn. I then quizzed myself and it graded me on the results of my quiz. The best thing is that this tool was written by a high school student to help other students learn! I think that I might share what I have done with Quizlet by emailing my French learning tools to my friends in my French class…. [recording speech, add to portfolio, connect with other classrooms around the world, ]

…Now on to Language Arts. We have been reading Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”. I get the gist of what they are saying but that flowery English is just so [|hard to understand]. But, I have looked on the Internet and found some references that explain some of the passages. It is really helping with my understanding of the text. I also go to the online RJH student discussion group for “Romeo and Juliet”, and some of the kids have some great ideas. It’s nice to know others are asking questions too. I think I will enter a couple of points that I have found into the discussion, and one question that I need answered. Hopefully someone will see my question and help me out. I love the ebook reader we use. It allows me to bookmark pages I think are important. I can highlight text, enter notes, and even drawings if I like! My friend in Language Arts is blind. He has this software called Natural Reader which he uses to listen to the text of the book (which we all downloaded for free from the University of Virginia’s ebook library).

…First thing I must do when I get up tomorrow is [|check out my stocks]. In Math we have created our own stock portfolios. We are buying and selling stock over a period of one month. (I want to be the one who makes the most money.) We have created these spreadsheets for tracking our stock portfolios. We track them every day and enter the prices in our spreadsheets, along with any transactions (buy or sell). Then at the end of the month, we create graphs and short presentations to show the class how our stocks did, and explain the formulas we used in the spreadsheets to figure out profit or loss, income tax owed and some other formulas that real traders use to decide whether to buy or sell stocks.

Our end of month math report also must include short blurbs on the companies we chose and why. I already have that from my science project that I just finished. One of the companies I invested in was my dad’s company, which makes insulin pumps for diabetics, and thanks to my internet research, I already know all about the company and why insulin pumps are important, why they work better than anything right now, and I also learned all about diabetes in the process…

Now that I am finally done with my homework (and still no snow in sight according to weatherbug) I am going to write my own personal blog. This blog is not for anyone else to read, it is just for me. It is fun to write, and I like to be able pour out my feelings sometimes….

MONDAY MORNING: Well, no snow yet, but weatherbug still shows clouds building up on the radar, and snow in the next county over. I have checked my stocks and logged the results into my spreadsheet. Things are looking good. I can hardly wait to show my results in math class today. I also checked the “Romeo and Juliet” RJH discussion group and guess what!! Someone answered my question. I never would have figured that one out on my own. I have checked the athletic calendar today, and sure enough, I have basketball practice after school. I had forgotten, but now I can remember to bring my shorts and jersey, and let my mom know where I will be. I’m make sure I touch base with her later.

… I should put my laptop into my backpack and catch the bus. My backpack feels so light now. I usually have only my laptop to bring home now instead of 3 or 4 heavy text books, and assorted crumpled papers…

..I have arrived at school. I have my laptop which contains all of my notes, textbooks, ebooks, calendar, agenda book, schedule and all of the other things I used to carry around to do homework and organize myself….

Thank goodness my parents have charged up my lunch card using the school’s parent web portal.….

The teacher takes attendance and the lunch count digitally turns them in to the office. I arrive at math class. I present my daily results for my stock portfolio by plugging my pc into the projector and showing everybody what is in my excel spreadsheet. Next we go on to what we have been covering beside of our stock projects - graphing equations. The teacher showed us this really nice web math tool for graphing that allows me to put in equations and see how the graphs look. It is so cool. I can change one variable or constant in the equation and see how it affects the graph. The teacher sets aside time for us to use this tool to work individually on areas where we are weak. For me, it is quadratic equations. I have a hard time visualizing them on the graph, so I can concentrate on those using this program while other kids work on other things. I have also been able to find videos on a web site called [|teachertube.com] of kids explaining some things in math that I really had problems understanding before, but are much clearer now. And last week I was at home doing my homework, and I really couldn’t understand something we were studying in math. I found my math buddy online and on our shared online whiteboard in Yahoo, he showed to me how to solve the problem. It really helped. If I have time at the end of Math class, I have my own set of tools on my pc for sharpening my basic math skills. I can also use those after school to practice and catch up with the other kids on doing arithmetic calculations and other basic skills.

As I head into art class, I realize I will be getting feedback about my art portfolio today. I couldn’t decide which piece of work I wanted to display so I put my artwork up on my voicethread for feedback. I hope I have some comments that will help me decide. During class, I found out I have 2 comments from teachers and 5 from my classmates. Their comments have helped me decide to use the pen and ink perspective drawing. Now it’s my turn to check out other people’s work. I will comment on at least 5 others using the rubric Mrs. Vitali gave us.

In Social Studies, we are going back in time to investigate the reasons for the child labor laws. Lewis Hine’s took some photos back in the early 1900’s. I’ve decided to learn more about the Breaker Boys. I found photos on the Library of Congress website. (http://tinyurl.com/5fbjmc, [|http://tinyurl.com/6yd9nw)] I’m beginning to feel that going to work everyday instead of going to school was not fun. Now I have some more information to write my diary entry as a breaker boy.

… Here are some of the things we have used our computers for in other classes…

Science – probes, blogging, simulations (forces – physics, rocketry; chemistry – jmol; weather; geology - earthquakes), create podcasts (look on youtube – teachertube for possible examples), voicethreads, live updates, watch streamings videos, note taking, animations (moon phases, rocks), programming for problem solving (robotics)

Math Class – simulations (graphing equations, variables, how changes in parameters affect the graph), writing epals to solve problems, interactive whiteboard collaboration, drill and practice at your own level

Language arts – Using Google Earth for literary trips, online dictionaries, thesaurus, grammar, other reference materials, graphic organizers, word processors for initial and revised work, eliterature libraries

Social studies – epals, primary source, historical online libraries (virtual tours), current events, political cartoons, live conferencing (ex, [|live conference with Pearl Harbor survivor)], live news for different perspectives from other countries, access other country’s resources and historical information and perspective

Foreign language – epals, live conferencing, live news from foreign countries, multimedia tools for learning vocabulary

Art – display work online with the ability to comment on your own and other’s work, digital photography and graphics

PE – viewing movies of themselves to see their strengths and weaknesses or to learn a skill (archery – how to shoot an arrow, simulations and predictions about the path of an arrow given different conditions – integration with science), monitor our own health (integrate with life skills)

General uses – note taking, online tests, organizing papers and notes, organizing and tracking assignments, personal calendars, revising work, collaboration, portfolio of student work, online research, live conferencing, online discussion groups, online archives, primary source, access to resources you wouldn’t otherwise have, document the learning process

Links http://achieve.weatherbug.com

[|http://quizlet.com]

[|http://home.comcast.net/~modean52/oeme_dictionaries.htm] dictionary http://finance.yahoo.com stocks http://teachertube.com online help http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/hn02.htm child labor http://voicethread.com art [|http://voicethread.com/#q student art.b101135.i515141]